Since the advent and use of electrical lighting, modern society has sought to illuminate homes and communities in a wide variety of ways. Notably, the use of electrical string lighting during the holidays or during special occasions has created a multi-billion dollar market in the sale of string lighting, holiday lighting and occasion lighting assemblies. Most mini light sets and holiday lighting assemblies are electrically connected in series, therefore when just one single bulb in a light string assembly breaks, fails or blows out, it causes the whole section of lights on the same circuit to go out. Some light string assemblies have only one circuit of lights, consequently when one bulb blows out the entire lighting string goes out and fails to illuminate despite the fact that it's just one bulb that is defective.
Typically, holiday string lighting consists of 50—2.4 volt lights (2.4×50=120 volts) in each circuit series of power driven bulbs, which are connected in series to one another by means of an electrically conductive wiring scheme. In turn, an electrical voltage via AC power outlet or battery, powers the series circuit lighting. As is well known in the art, in the event one bulb in such a series circuit fails or is damaged, a complete shutdown of the series circuit results.
As a result, due to the relatively low cost of such string lighting, damaged or non-functioning string lighting is simply thrown out since the time and effort required by a user to examine and diagnose each bulb far outweighs the cost of simply purchasing new holiday or occasion string lighting.
It is also notable that the prior art has offered no practical solution which allows a user the ability to diagnosis a specific point at which a series circuit is broken thus, allowing the user to simply replace the broken bulb as opposed to throwing out the entire string lighting assembly.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,806 to Lean et. al, describes a switching device for uncoupling defective circuit components from a series loop circuit so as to allow the continued operation of the remaining components of the circuit loop. The document further describes a method of installing and using a switching device in a series loop circuit to simplify the maintenance of such a loop circuit. The patent further describes a means for accessing the primary circuits of an assemblage of series-connected power driven components without having to open or remove the components.
The device described therein however, is employed in an industrial type setting such as occurs in, for example, short section of a series circuit of a power line installed underground. Such industrial applications do not assist in diagnosing and identification of a defective, non-functioning light bulb on a series circuit holiday or occasion string lighting assembly. Moreover, the cost of such a device precludes its applicability to a smaller scale device such as would be required for holiday/occasion string lighting.
It is not uncommon that at least one strand of decorative lights such as those used during the holidays to decorate homes, trees and the like suffers from a defective bulb or bulb socket that causes the outage of the other bulbs where all of the bulbs are wired in series in strand sets possessing a plurality of light bulbs. In such cases, if one bulb is missing, broken or otherwise non-functional, then the remaining functioning light bulbs on the circuit will also fail to illuminate as a result of the defective bulb or bulb socket.
This is especially true where an affected strand is one of many used to produce specialty-type lighting collections such as the popular icicle-type lighting used for roofing decoration to simulate icicles hanging from the roof. Likewise, “net” type lighting is used for decorating shrubbery and small trees. In the event a single bulb or bulb socket becomes inoperable, then the entire strand then fails to illuminate and the most natural inclination by a user is to simply discard the strand and to purchase new lighting.
Another holiday light style are so-called “candy cane” lights. These lights are fitted most often with ground stakes that placed in the ground to decorate pathways, walkways, planters and other areas as well. The lights are typically sold with a housing in the shape and color of a candy cane, with the series circuit lights inside the housing. Usually sold with 6 to 8 candy canes per light string and 5-6 lights in each cane. Therefore these lights have only one series circuit and when one lights blows out the entire string of candy cane lights go out.
The present invention allows a user the following advantages with regarding to this lighting scheme: (1) how to identify the candy cane light(s) with the defective bulb, (2) how to remove the lights from the housing using tools provided in the repair kit (3) how to locate the defective bulb and replace it using replacement bulbs (4) Reinstalling the light string in the candy cane with the tools provided in the test kit. Moreover, candy cane lights are much more expensive than the other common light styles. It is therefore a purpose of the present invention to address these shortcomings.
Specifically, the invention described herein provides a novel device and methods that allow for the diagnosis and identification of broken bulbs in a holiday or occasion lighting assembly. It is further an object of the invention that once identified, the non-functioning bulb can be replaced with a functional bulb thus, negating the general practice of simply throwing out a holiday string lighting assembly when one of the bulbs in the assembly is blown. It should be understood that the detailed description while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention would be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description.
It is therefore a purpose of the present invention to address these shortcomings. Specifically, the invention described herein provides a novel device and methods that allow for the precise identification of broken bulbs in a holiday or occasion lighting assembly set up in series with a plurality of other light bulbs. It is further an object of the invention that once identified, the non functioning bulb can be replaced with a functional bulb and thus, negating the general practice of simply throwing out a holiday string lighting assembly when one of the bulbs in the assembly is blown.
It should be understood that the detailed description while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention would be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description.